Maybe one definition of hell is that it is the place where more effort produces fewer results. Five years ago, I could drive from Kabul over mountain passes in safety to the central highlands town of Bamiyan. Today, the only recommended way is to fly – if you can get a UN flight. Today we have many more soldiers, contractors, and NGO’S than we did five years ago, yet it is far more dangerous today than it was then. We are getting fewer results with more boots on the ground. That tells me that many do not understand the country, the history, the people, the terrain, the language, the religion, the culture.

As hard as outsiders have tried to “re-create” the country in their own image, Afghanistan has been able to absorb the blows of superpowers, and remain essentially the same. The interesting thing to me is that the people trying to change it, change more than the country does even after Herculean efforts of well-meaning governments, NGO’s, and coalitions. Look at the Soviet misadventure for evidence.

Kabul, Afghanistan, 1992

The Congressional Research Service recently said the United States has spent nearly $230 billion on the war in Afghanistan. That amount will jump to $300 billion once Congress has approved a military spending bill for fiscal 2010. The question for all of us to ask is on what we are spending the money, and is it making a difference? Do our leaders have any idea what they are trying to accomplish? How many books have they read on Afghan history? How many officials based in Washington have stayed there more than a couple of days?

Mujahadeen fighter takes a looter to jail. Kabul, 1992

Everyone wants Afghans to live their lives in a peaceful country where families can thrive, but our ideas to achieve that goal are often built on faulty assumptions. President Obama may be a one-term president if the war goes badly, and who will decide if and when we “win.” The concept of winning is dangerous. Do we win, or do the Afghans win, and do they even want that victory as we define it?

Kabul, Afghanistan, 1992

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The problem is that intentions which are based on faulty assumptions are doomed to failure.

I am often asked by photographers just starting out what advice I can offer. Here are some tips which might be a good start.

Insatiable CuriosityBeing curious about life and things around you is an essential part of being a good photographer.Hard work
Any endeavor, any profession requires a serious commitment and effort and hard work. Unless you are willing to commit to that, it’s best not to begin the journey.Leave home
Leave home or leave your comfort zone. Being a good photographer doesn’t necessarily mean you travel to distant
places, but you do need to get out of your comfort zone and explore, wander and observe.Fortitude and DeterminationAt times, there’s a lot of pick and shovel work to photography or any other profession, and you have to be ready to work your way through these tedious times.Dig DeepThe process of learning never stops, but at a point it’s all kind of automatic in a way. If you look at the photographers whose work is widely admired you’ll see that they’ve found a particular place or a subject, dug deep into it, and carved out something that’s become special.Evolve, reinvent yourself, growYou need to keep your heart and mind open. Life is flowing in front of your eyes and you need to be open to respond and allow yourself to be touched by things which are extraordinary and let it change you.

Don’t wait for the phone to ringRegardless of how successful you are, it’s important for you to spend your time photographing things that matter to you. You need to understand the things that have meaning to you, and not what others think is important for you. Make things happen; don’t wait for others to offer opportunities. Follow up. Don’t wait for the phone to ring. Pick up the phone and call.

In developing countries one in six children from 5 to 14 years old is involved in child labor.

Nepal, 1983

In the least developed countries, 30 percent of all children are engaged in child labor.

Boy working in candy factory, Kabul, 2006

Worldwide, 126 million children work in hazardous conditions, often enduring beatings, humiliation and sexual violence by their employers.

An eleven-year-old boy working in gold mine, Mindinao, Philippines, 1985

An estimated 1.2 million children — both boys and girls — are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work.

Tibetan Girl, 2002

Children work in an opium field in Badakhshan, Afghanistan. 1982

The highest proportion of child laborers is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 percent of children (49 million) are involved in work.

Niger, 1995

Boy sells flowers in busy road, India 1993

Young Welder, Bombay, India, 1994

“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together, and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” - Grace Abbott